Recent content by Richard Olmstead

  1. Richard Olmstead

    Awesome Dogs of PNW

    Lolly, my doggie companion of 14 years, from riverbanks to mountain tops, departed for the big dog park in the sky last week. The loss is far too fresh to contemplate when or if there will be another.
  2. Richard Olmstead

    Condiments, Am I The Only One...

    Damn you, Dr. Pavlov…
  3. Richard Olmstead

    Wet Flies for Lakes

    i have tried a variety of patterns for damsel fly nymphs. Here’s my current fave. Marabou tail, abdomen and thorax, swiss straw carapace, and olive glass bead eyes.
  4. 08FEB866-0973-4906-911F-5E82C976A646.jpeg

    08FEB866-0973-4906-911F-5E82C976A646.jpeg

  5. Richard Olmstead

    Wet Flies for Lakes

    For whatever reason, I've come to favor orange or burnt orange for our native coastal cutts in lakes. I'd like to think it is because that choice has been reinforced by positive feedback from the fishes, but I'm enough of a scientist to realize I have no statistically valid evidence for this...
  6. Spruce flies.jpeg

    Spruce flies.jpeg

  7. Doc Spratley orange.jpeg

    Doc Spratley orange.jpeg

  8. grouse&burntorange.jpeg

    grouse&burntorange.jpeg

  9. Richard Olmstead

    Fave hopper pattern

    I use a couple hopper-specific patterns, including a parachute hopper (I've come to hate tying hopper legs out of pheasant tail) and an extended body hopper, but I find myself using a parachute madame X with a yellow body for a variety of large, high floating attractor applications.
  10. Richard Olmstead

    Book recommendations?

    I second all of the above, but for excellent fly fishing writing with a PNW flavor, you can't beat anything by Steve Raymond.
  11. Richard Olmstead

    Fave Ant Pattern?

    Here's a simple flying ant that works for me.
  12. Richard Olmstead

    Do you support a Wa. Constitutional Right to Fish and Hunt?

    I'm a fisherman and I guess you'd say 'retired' hunter, since I haven't hunted in years, but still support hunting. I just don't think this is the stuff of constitutions. I agree with Salmo_G that scientists should make the rules, or at least provide the data for recommendations to the...
  13. Richard Olmstead

    SFR Corner crossing update

    My friend Angus Thuermer has been doing a lot of great reporting on this in WyoFile. The link in the OP is an old one, @billie linked to a recent one. There are more articles for anyone who wants a deeper dive. Apparently a public access group is promoting providing funds to install passages...
  14. Richard Olmstead

    Strange, Weird, Funny Border crossings

    Ok, here's part II of our AlCan adventures-in-border-crossing in 1978. If you read my post above, you may have figured out that we were now in Alaska and would have to return to the continental US via Canada. We really didn't have any option; we were dirtbag climbers who had pooled our last...
  15. Richard Olmstead

    Strange, Weird, Funny Border crossings

    Too many to count. Was it coming in from Cuba via Cancun in 1996 with a full plant press (I’m a botanist), which the agents insisted on pulling completely apart and asking me to tell them what each specimen was and why I had brought it with me from Cuba, or maybe the time I was leaving Bogota...
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